Sloping House … or Aftermath of a Huge Stone Avalanche?

By Dornob Staff

Steep slope aside, this house is an impressive structure – but built from local stone and tied to the surrounding landscape like a pile of falling rocks and it becomes a work of dynamic architectural genius that is at once an intervention and part of its environment.

Set in a valley between even-steeper mountain slopes on either side, the alignment of these offbeat boxes (that combine to make up the whole home) is not a visual trick – this move is also designed to create views for the residences inside of prominent landmarks and landscape features outside of the building.

Sectioning off the internal spaces like this also allows for the structure to serve various purposes for different occasions, working as a single unit or a series of mini-condos that can be broken up should family or friend groups want to use this as a group of segmented retreat rooms.

Finally, these forms are indeed quite striking from the outside looking up, down or in (depending on whether you view from the surrounding mountains, valley or lake level below) and in various lighting and weather conditions as well, from day, dusk and night to bright summers and snowy winters.

While it is clear that some architects use complex geometries simply to show off and set a building apart from its environment, this home by Alric Galindez Arquitectos is both an aesthetic accomplishment as well as a functioning work of residential architecture on many levels (both physical and metaphorical).